September 14, 2009 Dear Friends,
Every contribution that comes into our office brightens our day. We are MUSTE truly thankful for your accompaniment News from the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute in our work promoting active nonviolence. If you were away when our last appeal letter arrived in the mail, please take a NOTES moment to read it on our website and respond with the largest contribution VOL. 17, NUMBER 1 Fall 2009 you can afford. If you have given already, we ask you Youth Pave the Way at Counter- to consider giving again, and asking others to give. Recruitment Conference
Your help is urgently needed. The
by Arlene Inouye O N
Muste Institute has no cash reserves; the A Y The Muste Institute’s T
funding to keep our programs going C E
Counter Recruitment Fund J O trickles in daily in the form of donations R
made a $1,500 grant for the P
, from all of you who are inspired by the National Counter-Recruit- W O K projects we support. ment and Demilitarization N H A J Some of your gifts are small, some are Conference organized in July K C
by the National Network I R large—and they all are critical to Opposing the Militarization Y B
sustaining this important work. We O
of Youth (NNOMY). Muste T O realize that many of you are already Institute co-director Jeanne H P giving as much as you can afford. If you Strole attended and used the know others who share our vision for a opportunity to connect better world, you can help still more by groups with information and guidance about applying for reaching out and getting them involved. grants. This article is by If you’re shy about directly asking Arlene Inouye of the Los your friends to donate, you can share Angeles-based Coalition for Alternatives to Militarism in our Schools (CAMS), which this newsletter, pass along the link to our received Muste Institute grants for counter-recruitment work in 2005 and 2008. website, and tell people what this work means to you. Many people still don’t Nearly 300 people from 35 states poured into the Friends Center and Roosevelt University in Chicago the weekend of July 17-19, 2009 for the National Counter- know about the Muste Institute, so Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference. The faces represented what the spreading the word is a vital first step. continued on page 2 Also, don't forget to make use of our pamphlets on nonviolence, featuring H N
wisdom from Martin Luther King, Jr., I Hondurans P O
Jeannette Rankin, Emma Goldman, C
Y B Henry David Thoreau and more. These Resist Coup O T beautiful and affordable pamphlets make O H perfect gifts. Use the order form on the August 26, 2009: Members of P COPINH, the Civic Council of back page of Muste Notes to buy them Grassroots and Indigenous for friends, for yourself, or to donate to Organizations of Honduras, chain your local library and schools. themselves in front of the main cathedral in Tegucigalpa to protest the June 28 military coup and the de We look forward to hearing from you. facto government’s criminalization of social movements. COPINH was the main organizer of last October’s Hemispheric Gathering Against Militarization, featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Muste Notes . Since the coup Sincerely, COPINH has been at the forefront of daily nonviolent protest actions like this one, which seek not to merely reverse the coup but to build participatory democracy in Honduras. For information about what you can do to support the Honduran social movements, see the website of Rights Action, a past Muste Institute grantee: http://rightsaction.org. Jeanne Strole and Jane Guskin 2 • Muste Notes Fall 2009 Counter-Recruitment Grants, June 2009
The Muste Institute’s Counter Recruitment expand outreach and education about for an educational summit in Denver Fund makes small grants for grassroots efforts the realities of military service to youth for the caravan and local activists. to inform young people about the realities of in Bay Area schools with high recruit - National Network Opposing the military service, help them protect their pri - ment rates. Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), vacy from recruiters and refer them to Intercommunity Justice & Peace Pacific Palisades, CA: $1,500 for the non-military education and employment Center, Cincinnati, OH: $500 to dis - National Counter-Recruitment and options. Our next deadline for proposals is tribute educational materials to Demilitarization Conference. October 5. Guidelines are on our website at guidance counselors in Cincinnati area Wisconsin Network for Peace & www.ajmuste.org/counter-recruit.htm. public schools. Justice, Madison, WI: $500 for coordina - Indigenous Youth Sovereignty Project, tion with other groups in Wisconsin to American Friends Service Committee, Denver, CO: $1,500 to bring a caravan of distribute educational materials to San Francisco Chapter, San Francisco, activists from California to the counter- guidance counselors in the public CA: $1,000 for Full Picture, a program to recruitment conference in Chicago, and schools.
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panel on “Education, Militarism and N
Youth Pave the Way A Y Counter Recruitment: where we have T C E (continued from page 1) come from and where we are going.” J O R counter recruitment movement is all An analysis of the history of the P
, about and how it has grown over the counter-recruitment movement led us W O K past five years into a diverse and to the need for a long term strategy. N H A J vibrant grassroots movement, Students talked about the activism they K C including veterans, youth, educators, have initiated in their schools and the I R
Y parents and community activists. importance of adult mentors and B
O
CAMS was heavily involved in this teachers. The event ended with a cere - T O H
conference. We invested many hours mony awarding a graduation certificate P into planning, fundraising, and we and cap to David Morales, a student brought along a team of eight youth and who was denied the right to graduate four adults from the Los Angeles area. with his class because of his activism On Friday night, students, a consci - and opposition to firing ranges in the entious objector, a long time San Diego Unified School District. Youth activists made up almost half the counter-recruitment organizer and an On Sunday, breakout groups and a conference attendance. Groups of students activist/researcher in the Chicago general session helped focus our work traveled from California, New York, Georgia schools shared their points of view in a on specific goals and strategies to col - and other states, and youth volunteers from laborate on in the coming year. These Chicago provided support at the conference site. include: developing resources for youth by youth, including a list of music and about its Opt Out and ASVAB policies, A.J. Muste videos with youth appeal; organizing a and other activists started linking up Memorial Institute national campaign and research around with resources as soon as they got 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 JROTC; centralizing resources on home. phone (212) 533-4335 fax (212) 228-6193 expanded alternatives for different I saw the youth from Los Angeles email
The International Nonviolence Training In a training $3,000 in January 2009 for a training for Fund (INTF) makes grants for nonviolence organized by activists and community workers from trainings outside the U.S. or in indigenous Kenya Pastoralist Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, communities within the U.S. The next Journalist Network, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro, to deadline is December 4, 2009. Guidelines Asha Ahmed, provide them with tools to strengthen and application forms are on our website. Chair of Women nonviolent action and group conflict Forthspring Inter Community Group , Peacebuilders, transformation throughout their commu - Belfast, Northern Ireland: $3,000 in June leads participants nities and the region. 2009 for a nonviolence training with in analyzing the Swadhina , Kolkata, India: $3,000 in June Forthspring staff and community challenges of conflict. 2009 for a t raining promoting awareness activists, designed to develop skills about nonviolent action and encour - within the group and local community Korea Solidarity for Conscientious aging leadership development among to address the legacy of conflict. Objection (KSCO), Seoul, South Korea: women to help them organize nonvio - House for Peace and Nonviolence , St. $3,000 in April 2009 for a training on lently for justice. Petersburg, Russia: $3,000 in December nonviolence and conscientious objection. 2008 for the “Initiative for Nonviolence Peace Makers Society Cameroon , Women from in Russia (including Chechnya),” a non - Nkwen Bamenda, North West Region, marginalized violence training for young activists. Cameroon: $1,979 in June 2009 for a par - neighborhoods Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network , ticipatory grassroots nonviolence in Kolkata, India Garissa, Kenya: $2,500 in June 2009 for a training for women group leaders of vil - take part in training to build the capacity of pas - lages involved in inter-tribal conflicts. Swadhina’s toralist communities to use nonviolent RAND – Regionalna Adresa za nonviolence and strategies to confront and prevent vio - Nenasilno Djelovanje (Regional Address empowerment lence and armed conflict in their areas. for Nonviolent Action), Sesvete, Croatia: training. Travel Fund Gets New Name The NOVA Travel Fund is now called We have renamed the fund for Adalys the Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel because so many women activists dedi - Fund . The new name honors a founding cate their lives to social justice without member of the Travel Fund Committee, getting recognition for their contribu - Adalys Vázquez Ramírez, who lost a tions; their labor disappears behind a battle with cancer on March 16, 2009, at veil of invisibility. We resist this invisi - age 45. From 1992 until her death, bility for Adalys and for all the Adalys worked at the Dr. Martin Luther grassroots activists, especially women, King, Jr. Memorial Center in Havana, who benefit from our travel grants. Adalys Vázquez, 1963-2009 Cuba, encouraging participation in By including solidarity in the fund’s campaigns and networks against free new name, we recognize the spirit that inspire many people, especially those trade, the debt, militarization and war. guides our grantees when they agree to who have traveled in Latin America, to She was also a lay leader and popular raise money from their own communi - donate so that activists from the region educator in the Baptist church. ties and economize on their trips, so that can take part in gatherings to coordinate more groups can benefit from travel social movements and develop grass - S
N Quito, Ecuador- grants. We hope this same solidarity will roots leadership. O P
based activists A B
L Cosme Córdova A
Y
B (left) and Cayetana Help Needed to Grow Social Justice Fund O
T Salao (right) O
H Thanks to your donations over the past six months, we are thrilled to
P perform "Solo en el Tango," a announce the return of the Social Justice Fund (formerly known as general theatrical grants), supporting grassroots activist projects around the world. Applicants can exploration of review the new guidelines on our website and email in a simple form. Groups gender identity and selected in a screening process will be asked to submit additional information transformation, at for a final decision. The new process will save on time, money and trees. a cultural rights Unfortunately we can only make up to 10 grants from this fund over the gathering in coming year. Please help us raise an additional $20,000 in modest contributions Bogotá, Colombia. The duo are part of from new donors, so we can expand this program and support more organizing TransTango, one of six groups receiving Travel projects. If each of us sends this request to 10 people who care about social jus - Fund grants in June. For a full list, see the tice, but who don’t yet know about the Muste Institute, we can do it. online edition of Muste Notes . A.J. Muste Memorial Institute NON-PROFIT 339 Lafayette Street ORG. U.S. POSTAGE New York, NY 10012 PAID NEW YORK, NY PERMIT NO. 02030
ESSAY SERIES ON NONVIOLENCE
A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute ESSAY SERIES #2: Barbara Deming – ESSAY SERIES #9: Aldous Huxley – A. J. Muste Memorial Institute #15: David McReynolds A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES the fem inist connection to ESSAY SERIES Twentiet h Century A. J. Muste Memorial Institute – longtime activist with the No. nonviolenc e – On visionary and prolific writer ES1S5 AY SERIES War Resisters League, No. Revolution and Equilibrium – Science, Liberty and Peace 14 Socialist Party presidential candidate – A Philosophy of #3: Henry David Thoreau #10: Paul Goodman – Nonviolence DAVID – the original architect of pacifist, anarchist, activist – McREYNOLDS
resistance – On the Duty of The Morality of Scientific JEANNETTE RANKIN Civil Disobedience Technology ; The Psychology A Peace Agitator: The of Being Powerless Philosophy “Two Votes Story of A.J. Muste , #4: Jessie Wallace of Against Nonviolence War” and by Nat Hentoff. A Hughan – suffragist, peace #11: Some Writings on Other Writings 250-page biography activist, founder of the War War Tax Resistance – on Peace Resisters League – Pacifism thoughts, poems, tales with many photos, and Invasion ; On Duelling from resisters, including profiling the Juanita Nelson, Allen ‘grandfather’ of the #5: Emma Goldman – Ginsberg and Pete Seeger U.S. peace #1: Martin Luther King, fiery orator, anarchist, #7: A. J. Muste – foremost translation of Loving Your movement –
Jr. – America’s leading ag it ato r for peace and 2 0th Century P aci fist #12 : Si dney Lens – Enemies , Letter from a minister, labor apostle of human dignity – liberatio n – Preparedness: theoretician and act ivist, peace an d labor activist, Birmingham Jail and activist, pacifist and Loving Your Enemies ; Letter The Road to Universal minister, socialist – Who Has socialist, occasional Declaration of resister. Introduction from a Birmingham Jail ; Slaughter ; The Individual, the Spiritual Atom Bomb ? political candidat e – six Independence from the by Larry Gara. Declaration of Independence Society and the State articles spanning three #8: On Wars of War in Vietnam . from the War in Vietnam. decades on the state of #6: Rosa Luxemburg – Liberatio n – three essays #14: Jeannette Rankin Also in Spanish – see #13. the U.S. labor movement Wear Your ILY courageous leader of on pacifist respoAnRses to – first woman in Congress, OR INT Peace Shirt. Germany’s democratic armed freMedPom PsRtruggles, #13: (Spanish) Martin suffragist, pacifis t – “Two TE OF Muste Institute t-shirts UT socialist movement – includinOg analysis of Luther King, Jr. – Votes Against War” and are black cotton with a The Essays of Prison Letters Gandhi’s position Spanish language Other Writings on Peace” four-color geometric A.J.Mus te design and the words: E D I T E D B Y “There is no way to peace, Nat Hentoff The Essays of A.J. Muste P R E F A C E B Y peace is the way – A.J. ZZZZZ Edited by Nat Hentoff, preface by Jo Ann O. Robinson. Originally issued in 1967, this new 500-page Muste” Available in large edition includes Muste’s “Notes for an Autobiography,” plus essays on pacifism, civil rights, trade and extra large. Shirts unionism and foreign policy, written between 1905 and 1966. are made in the U.S.A.
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Essay Series Quantity Pamphlets (total qty:) _____ x $2.00 each ($1.40 each for 20 or more) $______1 Martin Luther King, Jr. _____ Sampler Pack _____ x $20.00 (one each of all 15 pamphlets) $______2 Barbara Deming _____ The Essays of A.J. Muste : _____ x $20.00 * $______3 Henry David Thoreau _____ 4 Jessie Wallace Hughan _____ Peace Agitator : _____ x $5.00 * $______5 Emma Goldman _____ T-Shirts: (L)_____ (XL) _____ x $15.00 $______6 Rosa Luxemburg _____ I am enclosing a tax-deductible contribution for the Muste Institute’s 7 A. J. Muste _____ work promoting active nonviolence and social justice: $______8 On Wars of Liberation _____ * for bulk rates, contact the Muste Institute office 9 Aldous Huxley _____ TOTAL ENCLOSED $______10 Paul Goodman _____ SHIP TO ______11 War Tax Resistance _____ Please make check or money order 12 Sidney Lens _____ payable to AJMMI and send to: 13 Martin Luther King, Jr. (Spanish) ______A.J. Muste Memorial Institute 339 Lafayette St. 14 Jeannette Rankin _____ NY, NY 10012 15 David McReynolds ______Printed on Recycled Paper Newsletter Design: Judith Rew